Schumacher edges Hamilton in second practice

Michael Schumacher put Mercedes on top in the second practice session at Shanghai International Circuit.

The second practice session was much busier than the first as the track was dry throughout.

Lewis Hamilton led the times to begin with on medium tyres, with Nico Rosberg slotting into second.

The Red Bull drivers made an early switch to the soft tyres and took over at the top of the list. Sebastian Vettel set two quick laps on the softs, peaking at a 1’36.160, with Mark Webber 0.2s behind.

Several other drivers made minor errors during the session, sometimes exacerbated by the still-wet run-off areas. Paul di Resta spun his Force India at the exit of the final corner doing just that and Heikki Kovalainen copied him later in the session.

Kamui Kobayashi and Bruno Senna also had off-track moments. And Timo Glock’s session came to an end when he spun off at turn one, the front wing and nose cone detaching from his Marussia.

Schumacher was next to try to the soft tyres and went quickest with a 1’35.973. Hamilton was quicker in the first two sectors but couldn’t match the Mercedes in sector three – which includes the long back straight – and ended up second, 0.172s slower.

That demoted the Red Bulls to third and fourth ahead of Rosberg and Jenson Button.

Kamui Kobayashi, the tow Force Indias and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari completed the top ten. His team mate Felipe Massa was down in 17th.

Sergio Perez was 11th. The Sauber driver was one of several to have trouble braking for the turn 14, but his difficulties were the most acute. At one point he flat-spotted his tyres so badly the front of the car started to vibrate and he had to pit.

With track temperature no higher than 15C, the Lotus drivers had trouble with their set-up. Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 13th, Romain Grosjean 15th.

Massa really isnt doing well at Ferrari, I can see him being replaced before the end of the year.
And yes, even though I’m a Vettel fan I do hope Schumacher does well in the race, it’d be nice to see him on the podium again:D

@suka Turn 3 in Shanghai, are you sure he said 3? You shouldn’t brake anywhere near that corner, out of T2 you floor it till the T4 breaking zone. Of course just with a proper racing car, maybe he was afraid of the half ready Ferrauber.

@McLarenfanJamm I agree he seems to have lost the edge, not sure it’s Alonso getting to him or just the desire has died a bit. He came so close the WDC and may feel that was his best chance, and maybe combined with his accident it’s just taken something away from him. But listening to Rob Smedley giving him pointers on where not to brake and areas where he can make up time doesn’t paint a picture of confidence in Massa. I know that Rob does this with Massa sometimes but a whole second off the pace looks poor for Massa. But there is 6 tenths between Rosberg and Schuey and also between Jenson and Lewis so perhaps we are drawing too much from a practice session, i hope so for Massa.

To be honest, Hamilton regularly asks his engineer where he is losing time. Of course, in this case, he is looking for a lost tenth or two, not a second. These conversations tell me that even for Hamilton, its hard to definitively know where is the limit in an F1 car. I think if you just dont “get” the car and dont have confidence in what its doing you can suddenly look very foolish. You can’t get near the limit. As tight as the field is you get bllown away if you are not at the limit at all times. Massa is not on the wrong side of that fine line.

I have genuinely no idea what to do with my predicitons at this point…

Question: Did Hamilton make a mistake in sector 3 on his flying lap or is the Mercedes really that quick down the back straight? I saw that Schumacher, Rosberg and Raikkonen all set 320kph through the speed trap, where were Hamilton and Button in relation to this? If the Merc is genuinely that quick then they could definitely be looking at a first pole since they returned to the sport. Cooler temperatures could prevent them fromover-heating their tyres during the race too. First podium?

We have to make assumptions, because the difference of 5,1 is at a single point of the 1,3 km straight and we do not know how the cars behave during the rest of it.

If (theoretically, it is not the case) the whole straight were run at the top speed, then the difference would be 0,27 seconds.

IF (now a big IF) we assume that the difference is maintained along the straight at whatever speed they are at a given point (i.e. one car at 100, the other at 105.1 kph) then the impact increases since 5,1 becomes a bigger % difference.

If the average speed of the cars were for instance 250 and 244.9 kph, then the impact would be 0,39 seconds along the straight,

In the ideal world scenario where the Merc was doing 320kph through the whole straight; and McLaren doing 315 the whole straight (in fairness; you hit top speed fairly early on that straight) then the Merc would complete the straight in 14.62s. The McLarens would do 14.86s, so yes it’s worth about 2-3 tenths.

A team principle is responsible for the performance of the team. If the car isnt working properly, the responsibility still lies with the team principle, because he is incharge of the team.

If you are a Managing Director of a company that sells TVs, but your TVs are **** and nobody buys them..who’s fault is it? Yes it could be the Technical departments fault, but as MD, you are responsible for making sure the right people are in the positions, making right decisions, with the right tools and facilities at their disposal.

Why do managers at football teams always get the sack? They arent the players, but they are responsible to extract the best out of the team at their disposal to meet expectations of the club’s board.

I work in Project Management for a major global contractor. I have been tasked to ensure my project is delivered on time and within budget. I have had to manage some **** engineers over the years, but as a manager of a project, it is my responsibility to ensure they deliver their work in a manner that is acceptable to my client at an agreed date even if it involves me, sitting on a plane for 14 hours to stand next to their cubicles. If the project fails, I am responsible.

@me4me@raymondu999 ultimately, as Team Principle, Stefano is responsible for all team affairs, from track operations to manufacturing. Ferrari fired their technical director last year, their head of strategy the year before and probably numerous people in 2009 and they’re still not the leading team. Who else is left to go? Stefano. That’s why there are rumours.

Personally, I like Stefano. I think he’s a good team principle. But if Luca is looking for a scapegoat, he’s top of the list.

di Motezemelo looks to the team principle to find the people who can deliver towards designing a winning car , and that’s where Stefano has failed so far. They have moved backwards overall from last year , I’m not sure who their chief designer is (and how long for now), but he should be replaced for next years car , he in turn will replace those around him he needs to , and it will all filter down through the ranks. I realise the other teams are always developing , but that’s no excuse for a team such as Ferrari , they just have to be on top of it and develop even more.

Mercedes looks like they have a strong chance for the podium this weekend. I’m still predicting Hamilton pole (only to be relegated to 6th). Guessing that Button, Schumacher and Vettel would be fighting for a front row start amongst them.

Despite all of Felipe’s motivational talks in the past couple of weeks, there doesn’t seem to be a change in his performance. Still a second off his teammate’s time, and looking more likely to get sacked mid season.

Sacking someone 4 races in to a season would be extreme, even for Ferrari. I don’t think they’ll sack him this season, his contract is up in December so it makes more sense to just not renew it then to sack him early and have to pay him some sort of severance package.

My main reasoning for sacking him early is simply points. He hasn’t scored a single one yet, and he’s 17th in Q2 @ China, which would be outside of points. I doubt he’s going to be much better in the race or in Bahrain. I don’t think Ferrari is willing to continue bleeding points to McLaren/RBR

He scored less than half the amount of points Alonso scored, both in 2010 and 2011. Even if Alonso had won the WDC in 2010, Ferrari wouldn’t have won the WCC. I don’t think the points argument is valid, based on this. If they wanted someone who was always going to finish 1 place behind Alonso, they’d have brought someone in sooner.

It could be that the lack of blown diffuser just doesn’t suit his driving style. Looks at Silverstone last year. Alonso won, Massa was 5th. Another driver could have made that a 1-2.

To be honest, Schumi looked like he was in with a realistic shot at the podium in Australia. Malaysia the track temps were a little extreme and exaggerated Mercedes’ tyre wear problems. I guess its hard to predict right now.. but after this weekend we should know whether Mercedes is going to be a regular podium contender or not.

Mercedes’ problems aren’t tyre wear. Fundamentally speaking, that is. It’s that their car is a bit of a prima donna on tyres. It has to be set up for a very specific range of temperatures; and that range is a lot smaller than on other cars. They did setup work in a wet Melbourne Friday, and their tyres were just shot in the dry race; then when they did their set up work in the dry Friday in Malaysia, their tyres couldn’t go up to temp in the wet and cold race.

It has to be set up for a very specific range of temperatures; and that range is a lot smaller than on other cars.

Button said:

The cold weather made it difficult to understand the car because the tyres werenâ€™t working perfectly. If we make a set-up change and the tyre temp changes by five or 10 degrees, then that change goes out the window.

According to Jenson, McLarens have a 5-10 degree range, I assume its celsius, and thats a very narrow range, so either Macs are having the same problem (just coping better), or Mercedes has a huge problem, as noone can manage to keep tyre temperatures constant.

My opoinion is that Pirelli made challenging tyres this year, and the only team that has them working is Sauber, all other teams have problems with tyres, but Merc have the biggest.

why to wait for mid season…hope massa is dropped after chinese gp…iam a fan of massa..but have to accept that he is going from bad to worse indicating that he is at present not even fit for a 2nd fiddle in ferrari……….

Intersting analysis by Gary Anderson regarding drivers race pace, Hamilton comfortably was the quickest overall in his race stint, the Red Bulls were lapping in the 1.43’s and on a couple of occassions ,only dipping into the 1.42’s. JB was lapping pretty much identical to the RBR’s. Hamilton however was lapping consistantly in the 1.42’s and and only on a couple of occassions lapped in the 43,s bracket.

Overall, despite his grid penalty, i expect Hamilton’s going to be tough to beat.

Thats interesting, but that raises some questions (at least for me).
We have seen, that Lewis was mutch faster than Jenson in FP2, but Keith’s article did not say, if Button went out on the softer compund, and also Paddy Lowe said, that McLaren had a ‘big sampling array’ on Lewis’ car.
So the questions are:
Had both Mac drivers had the upgrades today, or they were just testing it on car no. 4?
Did RedBull stepped up that mutch in three weeks, so they are right behind a Mclaren and in fornt of the other?

I got the feeling the margins between the field were increasing in this GP, but comparing to the other previous Friday’s it’s about the same (I as just looking to the cars within 1s of the fastest session time).
Nevertheless I’m getting the felling that the pack will not be as close on Qualifying as in the 2 previous GPs.
Let’s wait and see…

It really seems they are getting closer but as always nothing more than speculation. Although I strongly believe that HRT will be one of the teams, if not the team, that will most improve the most this season … if they don’t hit financial trouble at some point…

i think redbull have a chance of a win here, merc will fall away in the race, but hamilton will be behind the redbulls at the start, and redbulls race pace could hold him up for the win. then there is button also, who could qualify in the top 3 ahead of redbull.

P2 it may be, but looking back to malaysia, schumi was over 3 tenths behind hamilton in the same session. in Q3 at malaysia, schumi was less than 2 tenths behind hamilton. if the merc improves 1 tenth relative to the (most likely fastest) mclaren again, we might see schumi on pole by 3 tenths of a second :O no1 should kid themselves, schumi is favorite for pole, especially after his lap in P2 included an error in the last corner. my guess is hes good for 4th on race pace.

Since Alonso arrived at Ferrari he has Massa in a Vulcan mind meld, except this meld is to melt Massa and not get knowledge from Alonso..lol.It has worked beautifully. There you have A-Lonso 1 full second ahead of Massa. Massa needs to be told he should not break in a specific corner?? are you f….g kidding me? get out Massa..